Casting Announced for Interrobang Theatre's FALLING Chicago Premiere

Interrobang Theatre Project concludes its 2016-17 Season, exploring "Flesh and Blood," with the Chicago premiere of Deanna Jent's drama FALLING, one family's battle against stigma from society and each other.

Directed by Co-Artistic Director James Yost*, FALLING will play March 16 - April 16, 2017 at The Athenaeum Theatre (Studio 2), 2936 N. Southport Ave. in Chicago. FALLING will feature Nick Freed, Tristan Hall, Amy Johnson, Heidi Katz and Justin Tsatsa.

It takes a village, and then some. For Tami Martin, raising her 17-year-old severely autistic son Josh, is not only a full time job, it's a labor of love. But Josh's increasingly violent outbursts and pressure from her family threaten to drive Tami's efforts and her sanity to the brink.

The production team for FALLING includes: Greg Pinsoneault (scenic design), Steph Taylor (costume design), Rob Stepek (lighting design), Morgan Lake (sound design), Pauline Oleksy (properties design) Joseph Wiens (asst. director), Brian Healy (technical director) and Christina Casano (stage manager). *Denotes Interrobang Theatre Project Company Member.

Tickets are currently available at www.interrobangtheatre.org, by calling (773) 935-6875 or in person at The Athenaeum Theatre Box Office. The press opening is Sunday, March 19 at 2 pm. Previews: $12. Regular run: $24; Students $17 (with ID), Seniors $17. (Ticket prices include $2 Athenaeum Theatre restoration fee).

Deanna Jent (Playwright) is the Artistic Director of Mustard Seed Theatre and a Professor of Theatre at Fontbonne University in St. Louis, where she's been teaching since 1995. She has written stage adaptations of the novels Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis and Imaginary Jesus by Matt Mikalatos. Her play Falling won the Kevin Kline award for Best New Play of 2011 and was nominated for a Drama Desk Best Play Award following its off-Broadway run in 2012. Falling was produced in Singapore in 2016 and has been translated into Portuguese for an upcoming production in Brazil. She has directed at professional theaters throughout St. Louis and was named "Best Director of a Musical" by the St. Louis Theatre Circle for Mustard Seed Theatre's production of All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914. Deanna grew up southwest of Chicago in Plano and earned her Ph.D. at Northwestern University in 1989.

James Yost (Director/Co-Artistic Director) With BareBones Theatre Group (Charlotte, NC), for which he served as Artistic Director for 12 years, Yost has staged over 50 plays and has won several awards, including "Theatre Person of the Year" in 2001. Selected credits include: Mr. Marmalade, Psycho Beach Party, Debbie Does Dallas: The Musical, The Graduate, The Play About the Baby, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Drift, Ugly Art, bash; the latter-day plays, Squirrels, The Wizard of Oz, Lend Me A Tenor, True West, The Pitchfork Disney and Noises Off. He has produced several new play festivals and was the co-producer of Charlotte's City Stage Summer Play Festival. For ITP, Yost has directed Orange Flower Water (Jeff nomination for Best Supporting Actor, Joseph Wiens), Ibsen is Dead and the critically acclaimed Really Really. Most recently, he directed True West by Sam Shepard for Shattered Globe Theatre. Yost has also taught acting, directing, production design and film at the high school and collegiate level. He is published in Teaching Theatre Journal, a publication of Dramatics Magazine.

Now in its seventh season, Interrobang Theatre Project, under the artistic leadership of Georgette Verdin and James Yost, has been hailed by the Chicago Tribune as a "company to watch" and by Time Out Chicago as "one of Chicago's most promising young theatre companies." Productions have included the world premiere of Ibsen Is Dead (Jeff Recommended) and the Jeff Award Recommended The Pitchfork Disney, Terminus, Orange Flower Water, Really Really, Recent Tragic Events and The North Pool. The critically-acclaimed Hot 'N' Throbbing earned a 5-star review from Time Out Chicago which called the production a "scintillating revival" and Newcity Stage exclaimed, "Interrobang Theatre Project, guns ablaze, dives headfirst into the play's challenging themes, and offers a rare production in which every element onstage is as robust and capable as every other."

What's an interrobang? An interrobang is the combination of a question mark and an exclamation point, joining the Latin for "question" (interro) with a proofreading term for "exclamation" (bang). Through the plays we produce, Interrobang Theatre Project aims to pose worthwhile and exciting questions which challenge our understanding and assumptions of who we are and the world in which we live.

For more information, visit www.interrobangtheatreproject.org.

Pictured: The cast of Interrobang Theatre Project's Chicago premiere of FALLING (left to right) Nick Freed, Tristan Hall, Amy Johnson, Heidi Katz and Justin Tsatsa.

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